Caquetio people

Caquetio, Caiquetio, or Caiquetia, were natives of northwestern Venezuela, living along the shores of Lake Maracaibo at the time of the Spanish conquest. They moved inland to avoid enslavement by the Spaniards but were eventually destroyed as were their neighbours, the Quiriquire and the Jirajara. The Caquetíos were also present in Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire when these islands were first discovered by Alonso de Ojeda in a.d 10.The occupants of this region were known as Caquetíos by the Spaniards and their language (Caquetío) belongs to the Arawakan family of languages. The Caquetío and the Jirajara spoke the same language, and their cultures were quite similar. The Arawakan or Caquetío language is termed a "ghost" language because virtually no trace of it survives. Only the name remains, saved in 17th-century texts.

Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire

When the Spanish arrived in Aruba around 1500 they found the Caiquetios in Aruba, living much as they did in the Stone Age. The Caiquetios had probably migrated to Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire in canoes made from hollowed out logs they used for fishing. Such crossings from the Paraguana peninsula in Venezuela, across the 17 miles of open sea to Aruba, would be possible in the canoes the Caiquetios of Venezuela built.